1889 - Nintendo is founded in Kyoto, Japan by Fusijairo Yamamuchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards. Even went into the brothel business for a short period of time.

1926 - The first television is made by John Logie Baird. Without the TV, no video game console would have existed.

1966 - Ralph Baer designs and drafts his original version of the Odyssey system, which is the first version of a video game console. Also, later he invented the first video game light gun.

1972 - Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney found Atari Inc. and housed their first office on Scott Boulevard in Sunnyvale, CA

1974 - Pong was set to be redesigned as a home version game. Being a hit at the bar it was initially tested at, Pong put Atari on the map as one of the fastest growing businesses.

1980 - Shigeru Miyamoto is sent to the US by Nintendo to design a game that would make up for the company's horrible loss of Radar Scope. With little programming experience, Miyamoto was able to design the hit Donkey Kong.

1985 - Codemasters was founded by the British Darling brothers, Richard and David. One of the oldest video game companies, it cracked the code to the Super Nintendo System and used it to release games of their own.

1985 - Alexey Pajitnov invents Tetris in the Soviet Union. Was then later able to produce for the NES console.

1989 - Sega releases the Genesis, also known as the Sega Mega Drive. While it was superior to NES in both graphics and audio, it failed to overcome Nintendo's huge market presence.

1989 - Nintendo releases the Game Boy. While the graphics were inferior to other systems out there, the system was paired with Tetris which helped it take control of the handheld market.

1991 - Interactive Studios is founded by British twins Philip and Andrew Oliver. The two started designing video games on their home computer as a way to spend time and gained fame for designing the serious of games after a character called Dizzy.

1993 - Doom is created by John Carmack. Thought to be the first successful computer game to use 3D graphics and network play successful, also, one of the original first person shooters.

1993 - NVIDIA is founded by Jen-Hsun Hsuang. Is one of the leading and best companies for computer graphics cards.

1994 - The ESRB was founded to rate and label all sorts of computer entertainment software. With ratings such as A, MA, TN, etc.

1994 - Sony releases the Playstation, one of the best selling consoles. To date it has sold over 100 million units. It was not the first system to utilize CD-ROM technology, but notably the first to implement it successfully.

1996 - The Nintendo 64 gaming console is released. It touted some of the best graphics scene to that date, even on the same level as super computers. Has since sold about 33 million units.

1998 - Sega releases the Dreamcast. A CD oriented console, it was ahead of its time, being able to connect to the Internet as well as other features. However, it did not gain enough support by the Playstation 2, and was thus beaten the market, also the last game console Sega would ever produce.

2000 - Sony releases the Playstation 2. The first system to utilize DVD discs to accommodate bigger games, it was far superior to anything that had been released before. It was the fastest selling console in history, it still beats its competitors, even the much more recent Xbox 360.

2001 - Microsoft merges into the console gaming market and releases the Xbox. It was also the first console to use a hard disk for memory storage.

2001 - Nintendo returns to the console market and releases the Gamecube, while it was the cheapest and better performing of the 6th generation gaming systems, it had a small market share with a limited amount of titles.

I see, video games reaching a plateau of graphics due to the limitations of current hardware. However, games will begin to become more edgy in order to keep up market momentum.